


Kings of the Ice

by paladinquen (postmodern_robot)



Series: The Way to You (Soulmate AU) [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 13:36:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12749379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/postmodern_robot/pseuds/paladinquen
Summary: A short return to the Soulmate AU universe where Matt and Lars' soulmate watches went off during a speedskating race - three years after Matthew's accident, he's now recovered and has been coined 'King of the Ice' in the speedskating world. It's a grand advertising opportunity to pair him up with Canada's figure-skating 'King'.Or - Matthew and JJ are mutual fanboys, and Lars is introspective.





	Kings of the Ice

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this little thing earlier in the year after watching Yuri on Ice! Then left it alone and forgot about it because I felt it didn't go anywhere. I just happened upon it again today, read it and thought...well...it's kind of cute in its way. So here it is. It's kind of nice to return to the 'The Way to You' verse.

It was only a matter of time before they’d meet. Lars knew this as soon as the Nike posters came out featuring this nineteen-year-old figure skating prodigy two years ago. There was something about Jean-Jacques Leroy that annoyed him to no end, a fact that Matthew laughed over when he first shared this fact with his husband.

“What exactly is it about him that bothers you?” Matthew asked, trying and failing to hide a grin.

“The kid is overconfident.”

A raised eyebrow. “YOU are giving a kid who has achieved all that he has, grief, for overconfidence?”

Lars huffed. He didn’t need to be told about his own attitude in the glory days of his speedskating years, he knew that the annoyance didn’t make much sense. But he noted the humming and general lightness in Matthew’s steps the last few days and realized that he was just a little… “You’re actually happy about this joint campaign aren’t you?”

‘Kings of the Ice’ - that was the tagline that Nike had proposed. An advertising campaign featuring Matthew Williams and Jean-Jacques Leroy ‘competing’ with each other for the title in progressively humorous situations on the ice in the leadup to the Winter Olympics. Both men had the title (though Matthew had never used that term himself) - Matthew in speedskating, as the current world number one, having built himself back up after taking a break following the horrific accident where he and Lars first met; and Jean-Jacques (JJ, as his fans, including MATTHEW, called him) who was consistently in the top five in the figure skating world, and currently had managed to wrest the number one rank away from some Russian kid this year. Lars didn’t follow figure skating, but he knew that rankings were fleeting things - you were number one this year, next year you could fall. Canada produced many skillful athletes, and Matthew and Leroy were some of the best even in that group, but this window of opportunity where both were number one? A marketer’s dream.

“I think it’s great!” Matthew confidently answered, shifting closer and making himself more comfortable on Lars’ lap. “Money from the ad campaign will also go to _______, and I don’t want this chapter of being at the higher levels in the world on the ice to end with JJ and I. I want younger skaters to see that they can do this. They can skate faster than the Dutch and for longer too, they can out jump and out perform the Russians. Why not get it into their heads? Yes, it’s a cheesy ad campaign, but even you can’t argue with the money.”

No, he couldn’t, he didn’t even know why he was complaining about it.

Maybe it was because it didn’t seem fair that Matthew seemed to be surrounded by loud and proud personalities when he was happiest sitting as one tiny being in the vastness of a natural world. Lars thought back to their epic Canadian journey together and his heart flared at the knowledge that Matthew invited him to share these peaceful and awe-inspiring places with him - just the two of them, feeling tiny and large all at once in the world. But returning to familiar life and Matthew’s decision to compete again meant a return to a strange world of too many people and too much fame - the sibling rivalry he had with Alfred in the bombastic forms it always assumed and well…being married to Lars, who may have been quieter than Alfred but no less proud to a fault. It was a world that didn’t seem to need another such person in it - and JJ Leroy was anything but quiet (did the man really have to cover himself in tattoos of his OWN initials?!)

Besides, Lars was self aware enough. He knew that it was absolutely ridiculous, that there was no reason for this feeling whatsoever, but he was a little jealous of the fact that Matthew was even a fan of JJ Leroy. Not as much of a fan as he had apparently been of Lars himself in younger years (if the hastily hidden posters from his childhood room revealed anything), but marriage and their daily relationship humanized each other. Lars would not change their warm and passionate domesticity for anything, but he was not-so-secretly happy to find out that his soulmate had adored him as a teenager. Was there really any mystery anymore when your ‘hero’ lived with you day-by-day and annoyed you by forgetting about that cup that he never remembered to put away?

 

* * *

 

“OH MY GOD I CAN’T, Isabella look! It’s MATTHEW WILLIAMS!” Even Lars had to smile, watching Leroy act uncharacteristically flustered in the presence of his husband.

‘As he should be.’ Lars thinks to himself, watching Isabella Leroy-Yang smile at her own husband, with a blush on her cheeks.

“Here! This! Please sign this?!” Leroy grabs a book out from seemingly nowhere, and of course it’s one of his own. The man is only 23 and he has already written two autobiographies, and there’s an authorized biopic on the way. Matthew was so embarrassed at the fact that there was an unauthorized biopic about him at all and didn’t watch it (Lars did, he hated the guy they cast as himself…he did NOT speak like that!)

Matthew, ever kind and wonderful, responds with a smile. “I hope you can sign one too.”

There’s excited babbling and conversation in both English and French, words from Leroy that went along the lines of “When Nike called I said YES before they could even finish! I get to work with YOU! Two Kings! It’s so perfect!”, and Lars decides to let them bond in person and takes a seat. The first day of filming will take place on the ice, and the photoshoots of them glaring into the camera to ‘challenge’ each other in their Nike gear will take place later in the week. Pity, Lars really wants to race around this rink, but he can’t cut up the ice.

He looks at them and wonders, for the first time in a long time, about soulmate watches and how lucky he is to have gotten his. He knows he would love Matthew no matter what, this he understands with all his heart, but JJ Leroy is 23 and Matthew is 28, they’re slightly closer in age than the six-year gap that he shares with Matthew, they clearly admire each other and hold the weight of the same nation on their shoulders. The thoughts don’t make sense and he knows it, but they run to some parallel world where there are no watches, and Lars wonders.

“May I join you?” Isabella is proudly holding the book that Matthew must have just signed and he can’t help but smile wider because she’s clearly starstruck.  

Maybe he misjudged these two. Now he knows that he also feared that Leroy would disrespect Matthew, as Alfred sometimes did, but if anything, JJ and Isabella are in love with him.

“Of course.” He looked out at the two men laughing together as the set was prepared. “All that’s missing how is Team Canada.” He smirked, referring to the national ice hockey team. “Think you can get Nike to call them in? It would be a festival.”  

She laughs. “It’s so tempting! But as fun as it would be, I think this is nicer, just the two of them. JJ has looked up to your husband forever! He’s inspired by him.”

Lars nods and wonders how Isabella Yang deals with being married to a celebrity at such a young age. It’s a little different for himself and Matthew, Lars has endured what Matthew is going through, there’s perspective. Isabella Yang meanwhile, doesn’t appear to be an athlete. That’s not what surprises him, what surprises Lars is how healthy her relationship with her husband appears to be, despite how young they were when they got married. Maybe he’s letting the stories of how difficult Alfred had found it, meeting his soulmate so young, to color his perceptions. There were exceptions to every rule after all.

There’s a silence between them for a moment, since the work is starting. Lars watches with interest as the film crews start to set up and the director briefs both JJ and his husband. He absently rubs a thumb over his wedding ring, a band of platinum, simply embedded in the centre with a tiny diamond. He remembered his heart almost stopping when Matthew formally proposed, before it leapt into life again. Matthew had beaten him, not that it was a game, it’s just that Lars had been hiding a ring in his study, trying to figure out the best time to ask the question himself.

“I bet this is all kind of commonplace for you?” She asks, and Lars looks at her somewhat confused. “I mean,” she continues, “You’ve had a career like this already, film crews, ad campaigns, endless training…”

He shrugs. “The technology changes but you’re right, for the most part it’s the same. It’s Matt’s turn now. How do you and JJ deal with,” he waves his hand at the scene in front of them. “This?”

She thinks about the answer before giving it, which Lars appreciates. “Well, JJ’s parents are competitive ice dancers, so they kinda know what’s going on. They weren’t famous like JJ, but they know the other more important stuff you know? Managing the stress, anxiety, it’s a bit of a dance, knowing when to encourage someone to push themselves to their limits because you believe in them, but also knowing when it’s gone too far and stepping back. In some ways, JJ kind of grew up prepared for all this? But after this is all done, we just go home, make hot chocolate and drink it together. So I guess my answer is, we deal with all of this with hot chocolate!” She laughs.

It sounds a little inane on the outset, but Lars knows it isn’t. It’s not the hot chocolate, it’s the normalcy and warmth of being together, the balm at the end of the day, feeling like a normal human after spending a day pushing your body to the edge of its limits. He feels a little silly then, being jealous of a 23-year-old just because his husband didn’t have Lars’ old posters hanging up in his room anymore. The posters don’t matter, not really. His medals don’t either - that’s not what’s important.

“For us it’s ice cream.”


End file.
